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Turning Stone Classic XXVI – Zion Zvi vs Luc Salvas
Turning Stone Classic XXVI Day Two
Maxim Dudanets
After two days of play, the 128 player field at the Turning Stone Classic XXVI has been cut in half, with 48 players on the one loss side.
One name that fans might not be all that familiar with on the winner's side is that of 17 year old Russian champion Maxim Dudanets. Fresh off his victory at the Atlantic Challenge Cup, Dudanets is in the states for one more week and hopes to add the Turning Stone Classic Title to his American resume. Dudanets had back to back 9-7 wins over Shaun Wilkie and Tom D'Alfonso on Friday, and is guarantee a cash finish in his first Turning Stone Classic appearance. Preparing for the life of a professional pool player, Dudanets plans on returning to Europe for the Eurotour's Dutch Open in late September and then returning to America for the US Open. He will face Rick Scarlato Saturday afternoon for a spot in the final eight on the winner's side.
Joining Dudanets and Scarlato on the winner's side are the usual field of world beaters. Three time champion Jayson Shaw has lost a total of four games in his first three matches, but Ernesto Dominguez will look to change things for Shaw. Canadian Champion Danny Hewitt will face Joss Tour points leader Jeremy Sossei, Earl Strickland will take on Rodney Morris, Mike Dechaine will play Cleiton Rocha and Karen Corr will do battle with Canadian Alain Parent iin select matches.
Players still fighting on the one loss side include Joey Dupuis, Sean Morgan, Eric Hjorliefson, Ron Casanzio, Shaun Wilkie, Brandon Shuff, Jorge Rodriguez, Luc Salvas, Tom D'Alfonso and Zion Zvi.
Our online streaming coverage of this event will kick off at noon EST, and run until the final 10 pm round. We also have real time scoring and online brackets available at http://www.azbilliards.com/tours_and_events/1-joss-northeast-9-ball-tour/7292-turning-stone-classic-xxvi/live/.
Turning Stone Classic XXVI Underway
The Turning Stone Classic XXVI will kick off at 4pm EST and run until a champion is crowned on Sunday evening.
The field of 128 players is filled with top level talent, including Jayson Shaw, Rodney Morris, Earl Strickland, Mike Dechaine, Karen Corr, Erik Hjorliefson, Luc Salvas, Brandon Shuff and Shaun Wilkie.
You can follow all of the action with our free livestream, as well as real time scoring and online brackets, at http://www.azbilliards.com/tours_and_events/1-joss-northeast-9-ball-tour/7292-turning-stone-classic-xxvi/live/.
Falcon Tour Stop #3: Hewitt Makes Impressive Comeback to Defeat Morra in Final
Danny Hewitt, Luc Pacquette and Alain Parent photo by Markus Noé
This past weekend Terminus Billiards & Bar located in Gatineau, Quebec hosted the third stop of the newly formed Falcon Cues Québec Pro Tour. This tour has been received with open arms by not only Québec players but from the entire Canadian pool community as this is currently the only professional tour in the country.
The first two stops have been played in Rimouski and Jonquiere, Québec averaging 32 players. Last weekend saw 47 players show up to participate. I credit this increase in the field size due to several factors. Gatineau borders Ottawa, Ontario and is only a few hours away from Montreal, Québec while the last two tournaments have been several hours away from Montreal which is home to hundreds of players. Also the announcement that the 8th ranked player in the world, John Morra along with his father and solid professional Mario Morra added some extra buzz.
Day 1 featured a few shocking results and a couple big matches early on. Winner of the last stop Danny Hewitt paired up with Luc "The Machine Gun" Salvas in the first round. Salvas a multiple World Speed Pool Champion, is always a crowd favorite as his speed and obvious love of the game makes him very entertaining. However he was in tough against the current #1 player in Québec Hewitt and lost his first match 9-6. Despite this early loss Salvas went on to win 7 matches before losing to Alain Martel in the 4th place match.
The biggest upset of the day was Sylvain Grenier who has had a solid year in his return to pool, failing to make it to Sunday. He suffered a 9-6 loss to Dany Nguyen a young professional from Montreal. On the losers side he won one match before being eliminated by strong local semi-pro Sébastien Cousineau 9-5. Another upset of note is Karl Petrin a newly ranked "A" player from Montreal beating Lelsie Cookie a "AAA" 9-8.
Overall as in most cases in talent packed tournaments such as this the creme floated to the top. Going into Day 2 the final eight were John Morra vs Andre Goyette, Danny Hewitt vs Yannick Bedard, Alain Martel vs Sébastien Cousineau, Luc Salvas vs Patrick De Repentigny. A feel good story going into the final was the success a few local players had been having. There was of course Cousineau who was mentioned earlier. However not to be undone is Canadian legend Andre Goyette at 75yrs who old fought right till the final 4 winners side. House pro at Terminus Repentigny also had a great deal of success only losing to Goyette and Salvas finishing tied for 8th with Cousineau.
The pool hall really became electric when there were 4 remaining. On one table there was Martel vs Salvas while Morra and Hewitt did battle on the next table. Morra defeated Hewitt 9-7 and waited in the hot-seat while Martel and Hewitt went to war to decided who would get the last shot at the tournament favorite. Martel looked a bit fatigued and perhaps was distracted by a waitress who came to bring me a coffee at aninappropriate time in the match and appeared to inadvertently "Shark" him out of a key shot. In the end Hewitt won easily 9-4 and earned a rematch.
The final began with a flurry from Morra who was breaking well and mounted a 6-1 lead in this extended race to 11. A dry break for Morra and accidentally hooking himself on a wide open was all Hewitt needed to mount a comeback, and in a blink it was 6-6. Hewitt even went on to take the lead 8-6 before Morra had a chance. Hewitt finally missed a shot and even got a good roll to not leave it easy. However Morra a former Derby City 9 Ball Banks Champion, stepped up and fired a full table cross corner on the 5 ball and ran out to get within a game.
In the end Hewitt was just playing too well and Morra a was just a bit unlucky as Hewitt went on to win 11-7. This was a phenomenal tournament all around and perhaps the most entertaining one I have seen in Canada outside the Archer Cup in Thetford Mines, Québec. Once again it was proven that Québec is the current "Mecca" for pool in Canada as it is one of the best places for the Pro's to come to be respected and watched. The local crowd was absolutely thrilled with the talent that was on display in their pool hall. I would also like to commend the amateur level players who came out to participate, because in reality there were only 12 ranked Professionals. The rest were high level Semi-Pro's and Amateurs. This to me is very important as currently in Toronto we see professional's are being left out of many tournaments, while in Québec they use staggered entry fee's and not handicaps to encourage lesser players to improve alongside some of the best in the country.
I would like to thank the Falcon team which consists of Danny Hewitt, Alain Parent and David Deschenes as well as Patrick De Repentigny and the entire Terminus staff. Combined they not only gave me everything I needed to cover this event but embraced me with open arms understanding the importance of promoting the Tour and the Sport of Pool. There will be a quick turn around for the Falcon Tour as the next stop is this weekend November 21-22 in Trois-Riviere, Québec. We will update the tournament early next week as my partner Erik Hjorleifson and myself will be playing in the Eastern Canada Barbox Championships at Tailgators in Ottawa, Ontario. I invite everyone to come and join the Nation on our Facebook page, you can also catch up with all the other videos I took at this event.
Turning Stone Classic XXIV – Luc Salvas vs Dennis Orcollo
Turning Stone Classic XXIV – Mike Dechaine vs Luc Salvas
Turning Stone Day One: Appleton and Dechaine upset
Day one is in the books at the Joss NE 9-Ball's Turning Stone Classic XXIV, and the day was bookended by two surprising upsets.
The first upset of the day took place in round one, where a Darren Appleton pinched nerve in the neck teamed up with strong play from Joss Tour regular Jason Michas to send Appleton to the one loss side in his first match. Michas won the match 9-5 and Appleton said he was contemplating pulling out of the tournament to seek medical help on the neck. Fortunately for the fans in attendance, Appleton stuck it out and has already won his first match of the day on day two.
Other action in the first round saw Robb Saez with a dominating 9-0 win over Rich Grannis and Mosconi Cup hopeful Scott Frost scoring a lopsided 9-1 win over Ernesto Dominguez. While Ernesto was being sent to the one loss side, son Oscar was being sent to join him, after a hill-hill loss to Michael Yednak.
Round two on Thursday didn't hold any major upsets, but one match of note saw local Junior Champion Jake Miosi take a brutal loss. Miosi led Ray Lee 4-0 when the wheels fell off. Nine games later, Miosi had lost the match 9-4.
The second major upset of the day occured in the final round of play, as Canadian veteran "Machine Gun" Luc Salvas shot down Mike Dechaine on the streaming table. Dechaine trailed in the match early and Salvas pulled away to get to the hill at 8-6. Salvas had a runnable table, but missed a ball and Dechaine pounced on the opportunity. Dechaine would tie the match at 8-8, but missed a 4-ball while running the final table and Salvas cleaned up the table for the 9-8 win. Dechaine will begin the long journey through the one loss side with a match against Tony Antone Friday afternoon.
AzBilliards is providing complete coverage of this event with live streaming (courtesy of Upstate Al and AzBTV), real time scoring and online brackets. You can find all of the coverage on our live scoring page at http://www.azbilliards.com/tours_and_events/1-joss-northeast-9-ball-tour/6623-turning-stone-casino-classic-xxiv/live/
The Hitman, Thorsten Hohmann, goes undefeated to win debut Archer Cup in Quebec
Thorsten Hohmann
In 2014 at Quebec’s 5th Annual Appalachian Billiards Classic, Thorsten Hohmann was runner-up to Johnny Archer in a 32-entrant field, playing 10-ball. In the 32-entrant 9-ball competition, won by Mike Dechaine, Hohmann finished in the tie for fifth place with Mika Immonen. This year, under the auspices of a newly-formed company called EvenTime, the annual tournament gave way to a new competition called The Archer Cup; so named, according to tournament director, Marco Sanschagrin, because “Johnny represents what we want to promote.
“He has always been a gentleman,” he added, “and when we asked him if he would be (the event’s) honorary patron, he agreed.”
The $10,000-added, 10-ball tournament drew 24 entrants to a converted ice hockey arena; The Black Lake Arena in the village of Thetford Mines, about an hour outside of Quebec City. In addition to the 10-ball tournament, the first Archer Cup featured a $2,000-added Scotch doubles tournament that drew 15 teams. It was won by Erik Hjorleifson (third in the 10-ball event) and Ashley Nolan, who defeated John Morra (fourth in the 10-ball event) and Joey Cicero in the finals.
It would have been highly fitting had Archer, last year’s 10-ball winner, gone on to win the tournament now named in his honor, but it didn’t happen. He won his opening match, against Luc Salvas, but then lost two in a row (to John Leblanc and Tom Theriault, by the same 10-8 score). He remained ‘in the house’ to be part of the post-tournament ceremonies, thanking all those who had made the event possible.
It was Hohmann who emerged from the field to go undefeated and claim the first Archer Cup title. The $6,500, first-place prize was accompanied by an actual Archer Cup, a huge trophy donated by a monuments company called Atelier du Bronze. Valued in the vicinity of $20,000, the “A”-shaped trophy featured a molded scorpion, poised to sting.
“It’s a good thing that I’m not going to have to carry this with me,” joked Hohmann in post-tournament ceremonies, “because the (baggage) fees would be more than my prize money.”
The trophy will be retained by tournament officials, with the winner’s name added each year.
Hohmann completed his undefeated run through the field with six victories, in which he gave up an average of just a little over five racks in each of the five races to 10 and single race to 12 in the finals. He chalked up two straight 10-4 victories in the opening two rounds before running into what proved to be his toughest challenge of the event; Francis Crevier, who battled him to double hill before giving way, allowing Hohmann to advance to a winners’ side semifinal against Erik Hjorleifson. In the meantime, Hohmann’s opponent in the hot seat and finals, Canada’s Danny Hewitt, squared off against fellow Canadian John Morra.
Hohmann and Hewitt advanced to the hot seat; Hohmann 10-5 over Hjorleifson and Hewitt 10-8 over Morra. Hohmann claimed the hot seat 10-5 over Hewitt and waited on his return.
Morra moved to the loss side and picked up Mike Dechaine, who, after being defeated by Hewitt in the second round, went on a four-match, loss-side streak, including a 10-4 victory over Francis Crevier and a 10-2 win over Jeff Blais that set up his match against Morra. Hjorleifson drew John LeBlanc, who’d defeated Yan Lalande 10-8 and Luc Salvas 10-7 to reach him.
Hjorleifson advanced to the quarterfinals 10-7 over LeBlanc and was joined by Morra, who’d eliminated Dechaine 10-4. Hjorleifson went on to defeat Morra 10-7, but was denied a second shot at Hohmann when Hewitt defeated him 10-2 in the semifinals.
Hohmann opened the final match proceedings with a bang; winning the lag, dropping five balls on his break, and easily taking the opening rack. Hewitt broke dry on the second rack, opening the door for Hohmann’s second win. The match tightened considerably with safety play starting to make an appearance, as Hewitt got on the board in the third rack, and tied it up in the fourth.
A combination of unforced errors by Hewitt and strong play by Hohmann, led to five straight for Hohmann. Hewitt responded with three straight of his own, to pull back within two at 7-5. Four racks later, Hohmann was on the hill. He broke dry in the subsequent rack, opening the door to what proved to be Hewitt’s last game victory. Hohmann closed it out in the 18th rack, claiming the debut Archer Cup title with a 12-6 victory over Hewitt.
In post-tournament ceremonies, he congratulated Hewitt for a strong tournament and final match.
“He defeated me a few months ago at Turning Stone,” he said, adding that while assembled fans probably wanted a longer final match, against Hewitt, he didn’t.
Reminded of his opening break, the strongest of the final, with five balls dropping, he quipped, “Ok. I did it once, I figured I didn’t need to do that again.”
According to tour director Sanschagrin, the Archer Cup is but the first of many planned events by the new EventTime company. In addition to a 2nd Annual Archer Cup next year, the group (which includes tournament president Roger Doyon and Michel McCutcheon) will be hosting tournaments for juniors, seniors and is looking to create a pool tournament that will coincide with Quebec’s annual winter carnival, one of the nation’s largest such festivals.